Magnus von Grapple
by Terrapin44
Summary: He has what he came for. The success of his mission hangs by a thread. Cornered by his enemy, Crump realizes that desperate times call for desperate measures. (This was made as a prompt for a different website, where I go by a different username. I have decided to submit it here, too. Constructive feedback is welcome.)


How had it come to this? How could his brilliantly awesome robot have been destroyed? And so easily, too!

There he was, his infiltration of the Great Boggly Tree had gone smoothly. The Puni creatures were easily incapacitated; indeed, they didn't even try to fight back. The deal he had struck with the Jabbie tribe had made their capture all the easier. With the Punies out of the way and the Jabbies generally keeping to themselves, there was nothing to stop him from hastening the excavation of the green Crystal Star. Sure, he was still having difficulty in solving the ancient puzzles laid out at different points inside the tree, but he still figured time was on his side. As it was his idea to install those big security doors everywhere, there was nothing to stop him from scouring every inch of the tree's interior with a fine-toothed comb. He would succeed in this endeavour or his name wasn't the great Lord Crump!

The one oversight to his plan was so small and innocuous, he felt as if he almost couldn't have been blamed for not noticing it. As Crump was capturing the Punies, he noticed one managed to escape: a small striped Puni with a green antenna on his head. Originally, he thought nothing of it; the Punies, true to their name, were very frightened of their intruders, and were of no use in a fight, whatsoever. The fact that this one had decided to run away instead of standing its ground like the others meant that it was likely much smarter than the rest. After all, what could one Puni accomplish on its own?

This answer would come to Crump a little bit later when, against all probability, the Puni was somehow able to disable the security doors and return with not only an ally, but that same mustachioed man he had met in Rogueport earlier. This man, who went by the name of Mario, apparently, proved to be much more of a problem than Crump had anticipated. Against all odds, Mario was able to not only free the Punies from their prisons, but was also able to solve the puzzles and move into previously unexplored sections of the tree. Even luring the man into a trap proved fruitless.

But that last point seemed to work out in Crump's favour. Although he didn't expect Mario and his friends to break out of his rather ingenious trap, it turned out to be just the what he needed, as the persistent plumber managed to somehow unearth the green Crystal Star with a bit more meddling. With lightning fast reflexes, Crump rushed up and grabbed the star right in front of him. He would then start the remote detonator for the bomb his minions had installed as per his instructions. He got a head start on his enemies and was making his way back the way he came. Eventually he had reached the tree's entrance and was almost home-free…

…until he realized he was being blocked in by the elder Puni. There was ultimately nothing stopping Crump from squashing the frail thing and making his getaway, but the creature was jabbering on and on about nothing so persistently, he felt himself getting disoriented. And as he came back to his senses, he realized that Mario had cornered him, no doubt after the Crystal Star. With nowhere left to run, Crump had one last trick up his sleeve. After shutting off the remote detonator, he pulled out a second switch and pressed it. This one summoned a giant robot that he had constructed himself, which he had taken to naming "Magnus von Grapple". It was a rather imposing, cube-shaped, magenta-coloured robot, sporting long arms and legs and a glass dome for a head. He had tested this creation on his cronies many times before; and as he boarded the robot and took to the controls, he was very confident that it would be able to lay the hurt on his enemies.

Mario's hammer was leaving dents in Magnus' casing, but that wasn't enough to deter Crump's resolve. Using the robot's feet, he attempted to squash the plumber, but he would always jump away at the last second and counterattack. Crump would also make Magnus jump and slam the ground, making little mini-earthquakes. This move proved just as effective as the squashing move, however, because while Mario would lose his balance, he would still regain it and move away before Crump had the chance to take advantage of his opening.

Repeated punishment from the hammer attacks was starting to weigh on Magnus' systems, which was very perplexing for Crump. He soon resorted to the robot's secret weapons: detachable flying fists. He would launch them from the robot's arms and they would hover in the air for a few seconds while they tried to find their target, which ended up being their fatal flaw. As Mario was constantly moving, the hand missiles were having a tough time locking onto him, which made taking them down very easy. The detaching of the fists also meant that Magnus had no way to defend itself, which was something Crump had failed to consider, before. Every time he had tested the robot, his cronies hadn't noticed its sudden vulnerability when its fists were detached, so the thought hadn't occurred to him until that very moment. With the fists destroyed, Crump could only stammer incomprehensibly. A few more hammer whacks, and Magnus had taken all the punishment it could take. Its systems then overloaded and the machine exploded into rubble, which sent Crump flying and landing on the ground face first, losing his hold on the green Crystal Star.

Which brought them to the present moment. Crump couldn't believe Magnus had lost so easily. How long had he been testing it, and for it to fail so badly? How was it even possible?!

It was clear that his mission had failed, at this point. Grodus would be very displeased with him, but, for the moment, that didn't matter. Crump found himself overcome with a boiling rage as he got to his feet and faced the one responsible for his creation's destruction. He was so angry, he could barely get the words out:

"Hurff… Hurfff… Hurffff… I'll remember this, losers!"

And with that, he took off, exiting the Great Boggly Tree and thinking about his next move. Indeed, to properly deal with Mario, it was clear that Magnus von Grapple was in desperate need of a few upgrades. He would salvage as much of the wreckage as he could on his own time and begin reconstruction. Magnus would be bigger, better and stronger than it was before, Crump would see to that.


End file.
